The Trouble I Love
by jamiel33t
Summary: Can an arrogant doctor and a cantankerous redneck ever get over their initial dislike of one another?
1. Chapter 1

**~*~*~ Hey guys, this is my first ever Walking Dead fiction. Let me know if you think it's worth going on with it or not! (: ~*~*~**

I waited in the staff office of St Joseph's hospital in Atlanta, reading an old copy of Rolling Stone magazine that had been lying around. I had been sitting for over an hour, and I could hear the hustle and bustle of the hospital outside the doors. Well, I could hear the frantic work of doctors and nurses and the distress of patients which was well above the normal level. Truth be told, this job was incredibly important to me, but with each passing minute I began to worry about the likelihood of being able to leave, and just wanted to find my brother and somehow get home to see if my dad was doing okay through all of this. I just felt so useless sitting here. Suddenly the door opened and I looked up.

"Raelen, I'm terribly sorry to do this to you, but we're extremely overrun today." The head administrator of St Joseph's hospital Karl Tanner apologised to me. The guy looked utterly distressed, the look I had seen on many people's faces since leaving the airport yesterday afternoon… when I was supposed to be interviewed but wasn't. "Is there any chance you could throw on some scrubs and help out in the emergency room?"

"Of course Mr Tanner!" Although I was worried, I was secretly delighted; I had come down here for a job interview as an assistant cardio physician, and the best way I could showcase any of my skills was to actually do some hands-on work. Plus, I had worked the emergency room for the past two years, nothing fazed me about it… or so I thought…

I followed Karl Tanner as he showed me quickly where to get my scrubs.

"Scrubs are just in there and you can put your things into one of the lockers." He hurriedly spilled. "The emergency room is just down the hall and to the left. I don't want you to be too alarmed, but there are some police present to… keep order."

"Keep order? Is it really that bad?" I looked into the older man's strained face.

"I don't know what this flu has done to people, but they have literally gone crazy. They're attacking each other, and biting like rabid animals. I can't begin to explain this, hopefully the government will be doing something to help. Unlikely though." He gave a humourless short chuckle. "Quick as you can Raelen, we need your help."

"Right away." He left and I grabbed the scrubs and went back to the staffroom to change quickly before anyone could walk in, and so that I could get down there quicker. I stuffed my clothes/wallet/etc. into my backpack I had brought with me (hoping to be on a plane home tonight) and into one of the vacant lockers and turned the key and took it with me, using an elastic band to strap the key to my inner arm (a trick I had learned in the first week of my residency).

I followed the signs to the Emergency Room, the noise reaching a crescendo as I neared the door. When I opened the swing doors I was almost shocked by the sheer amount of people I saw sitting there… and standing all over the place. I thought the corridors were busy, but it looked like a Friday night in a local popular bar, there were people everywhere. There were quite a few police officers too, including (to my surprise) my brother Dean. He was one of the reasons I really wanted this job (aside from the fact being an assistant Cardio physician was a large step in the direction of my dream), I missed him when he moved away from home, and we'd always been super close. He was currently trying to calm a hysterical woman whose cries were so shrill that her words were impossible to discern. Medical personnel were dashing to and fro and the two receptionists looked ready to keel over with the sheer amount of work.

"Dean?" I walked up to him.

"Little sister." He turned and put his arm around my shoulders, gave a quick squeeze, and then dropped it. He looked stressed beyond belief, but also slightly relieved (probably to see me). "What you doing in scrubs? You get the job that quick?"

"No, I got asked to help out. Speaking of which I better go do. You still want me to come over later before I go home?"

"Raelen." His tone stopped me in my tracks and he came up close to me so he wouldn't be overheard. "Look… it's pretty dangerous right now. The entire city seems to have gone crazy. There's a bunch of folks attacking and…" He paused for a second, like there was something he was afraid of saying, but he knew I was made of sterner stuff than most. One had to be if they wanted to be a heart surgeon. Plus, I'd already heard it from Tanner. "They're trying to eat people Rae."

"Eat them?" That was something Tanner had not told me.

"Yeah, it's like a full on World War Z out there. You promise me if someone even tries to take a snap out of you, you come find me. I won't be leaving here, I need to stay and try to keep things in order." I couldn't comprehend what he was trying to say. I knew the nation was suffering from some flu-like virus and things were a bit manic, but I couldn't understand fully how dangerous he was insinuating it was out there.

"Dean, calm down, it can't be that bad. Believe me, I worked the emergency room during the swine flu scare and a Pittsburgh weekend when the Penguins lost combined. I can handle it."

"Listen to me Rae, it's serious. You know I wouldn't say that unless it was true. Right?" My older brother was not someone to get spooked, or scared and was the bravest man I had ever met apart from our dad. Dean regularly made jokes about everything, even in serious situations and seeing him rattled like this got to me. Maybe things were that bad out there.

"Okay, I'll be careful."

"And I'm not leaving here without you, so if I have to leave if we're in trouble, then you come too, understand?" He gave me that stern look that reminded me of when I was 15 and he was 19 and he was in charge of the house for the weekend when our parents were on some kind of weekend break. All I had suggested was having a small get together and he gave me that withering look. That was twelve years ago now, but I remember everything, memory like an elephant.

"Got it. I better go see if I can help." I backed away from him.

"Careful Rae." He warned again ominously and then turned to where a scuffle had broken out between two patients waiting near the entrance. I wasted no time, I marched right up to the desk.

"Hey guys, I'm Dr Gardner. Mr Tanner sent me down. Put me to work." I smiled a tight-lipped smile at them and they had looks of minor relief on their faces.

"Thank you so much doctor. Dr Collins!" She shouted to a passing doctor who stopped. "This is Dr Gardner, she's been sent down to help out."

"Oh fantastic." He smiled at her. What's your area doctor?"

"Emergency room wannabe cardio surgeon."

"We could always use an emergency room wannabe cardio surgeon." He smiled a tight-lipped smile. At that moment two paramedics burst in the door wheeling in a patient and rushed to get him through the back.

"Show me what you're made of Dr Gardner." He nodded at me and I approached the paramedics, going through the door with them to the emergency operating rooms.

"What have we got here guys?"

"Male, 46, heart attack, has two of these bites everyone has been coming in with." Shit, Dean must be right, I thought fleetingly. But I was now focused on the task at hand. I'm a doctor and I save lives. That's not me trying to be arrogant; I need that mantra, especially on the difficult days. I also noticed a nurse was following me around, a young nurse.

"Okay, nurse…"

"Chloe." She said quietly. The poor girl looked terrified. The paramedics had barely parked the man before they dashed out.

"Okay, Chloe, prepare me an ECG stat." Chloe hesitated. "Now Chloe." I sound like such a bitch, but when people's lives are at stake you can't be soft and gentle about the subject. She quickly set about getting the equipment whilst I popped open the man's shirt and saw whilst I was doing this a bite on his left forearm and his right shoulder. They were nasty deep gashes that were bleeding pretty badly. I quickly taped some gauze to both wounds to staunch the bleeding whilst I concentrated on his malfunctioning heart. By this point Chloe had completed the ECG.

"Okay, there's ST-elevation. I'm going in. Chloe I need a catheter, a hypodermic and 5mil of Roxanol." Chloe scurried about getting the items I requested while I prepared to make an incision in his chest. The man's pulse was slowing and his breathing felt non-existent and suddenly he flat-lined.

"Fuck. Chloe, 10mils of Vasopressin, now!" I began chest compressions and instructed Chloe to inject the Vasopressin into his arm as quickly and accurately as she could. This is where I loathe movies and TV shows. Contrary to popular belief, a defibrillator is not the go-to tool when your patient is flat-lining. In most cases this makes it less likely that your patient will be revived. Although we tried more endorphin-increasing drugs and more compressions, the man was dead. "Okay, I'm calling it. What's the time Chloe?" I walked away from her, taking my gloves off and putting them into the appropriate bin.

"It's 6.17." She said. I heard movement behind me and then Chloe screamed. I spun around to find that the man on the table had grabbed Chloe's wrist and was using her to pull himself up. By Chloe's screams I could tell that he was gripping her very tightly and I moved to help her remove him. Now I am by no stretch of the imagination even remotely strong. I am 5'2" and although I am pretty curvaceous there was not a noticeable amount of strength in my upper body. I could do chest compressions and similar to my patients because I put my entire body into it (there's a thing to be said for determined effort no matter how strong you are). I don't know what made me think that I could possibly get this man to let go of Chloe, but instinct takes over just like when I'm working. I pulled and pulled but all it seemed to do was make the man move further towards us.

"Let go!" I shouted at him and then I almost fell on my ass when I looked at him. His eyes were glazed over, and he was snarling at us, in a feral, animalistic way, which scared the shit out of me. Suddenly the door flew open and my brother came in and put one bullet through the patient's head and he dropped back onto the trolley. I managed to catch Chloe before she fell over, and looked over at my brother in shock. "You shot him. What the fuck?"

"Several people in the waiting room have changed. We need to get the fuck out of here."

"Changed into what?"

"Fucking zombies Raelen, now come on!" I pulled Chloe out of the room after Dean and when we stopped at the waiting room Chloe shrieked but I was just in total horrified awe of what I seen. Human beings tearing bits of flesh off of other human beings. One elderly lady took a chunk the size of an Oreo out of the neck of one of the male nurses, and a man was chewing on what looked like the dead girl in front of his knees' forearm… since she was missing an arm and was splattered in blood. The waiting room looked like something straight out of a horror film. All that was missing was the hero or heroine saving the day. I realised in less than a second that wasn't going to be the case and I ran back through the doors the way I had first come to the waiting room, with Dean and Chloe hot on my heels.

"Shit, where do we go?" Asked Dean.

"The window of the staff room is next to the escape stairs, we could get out there." Chloe told us, completely spaced out.

"Let's go right now." I moved in the direction of the staff room, trying to ignore the screams behind us… and above us… Considering the carnage in the waiting room the corridor was relatively empty besides the couple of dead bodies we had to dodge and Chloe screeched each time she saw one. I, on the other hand, have seen more dead bodies than I care to remember. Nothing freaked me out about dead bodies… unless they were getting up… and moving towards me… like the woman dressed in a nurse's uniform who was doing the exact same in front of us. She sat up and snarled, teeth snapping, but before she could take a bite out of Dean (who was closest to her) I quickly grabbed a metal crutch and bust her head open with it. She fell backwards and her head hit the ground. I realised that her blood had went all over my scrubs.

"Shit Rae, your upper body is deceptive if it can hide strength like that." Fucking Dean making fucking jokes when they were in peril.

"Shut the hell up and keep moving." I hissed at him. I noticed that Chloe had stopped moving and was staring at the woman whose brains I had just bashed in. She was about ten feet behind us. "Wait, Dean, I need to get Chloe."

"Who?" I ignored him and moved back towards Chloe.

"Come on Chloe, we need to get out of here now."

"I… I can't." She stuttered. She was completely petrified. I slapped her with my left hand, which was not as effective as my right (which was still hanging onto the crutch), but it got her back to her senses and moving quickly with me back to Dean. The doors behind us opened and three people came through, slowly, but ominously. One look at them told me all I needed to know.

"Move, now!" I dragged Chloe quickly behind me, but the three milling around the door noticed us and started ambling towards us. Without looking back we ran to but it staff room and Dean used one of the lounge chairs to keep the door closed.

"Okay let's go." He opened the window to reveal the emergency stairs Chloe has told us about. I snapped the key on the elastic band off of my arm and ran to the locker I had put my things in. "There's no time for this Rae."

"Just wait!" I grabbed my backpack and threw it around my shoulders before following Chloe out into the emergency stairs. I heard a pounding noise on the staff room door and the lounge chair moved forward slightly. "Come on Dean, get out here." Dean quickly stepped out and followed the girls to the bottom of the stairs. There were screams coming from all directions.

"Okay girls, stay behind me." He held his handgun up. "We're going to go straight to my jeep, it's parked across the road from the entrance to the hospital, just round this corner." He pointed round to the right. We hurried behind him and nothing could have prepared us for what we saw on the street. It was the waiting room on a larger scale, but zombies (zombies? Fucking zombies!) were shuffling along after people. They weren't running, the motor functions enabling them to run having long gone, but they did shuffle in a sort of hasty way. I heard a growl from behind us and saw a zombie walking (shuffling? Sliding?) towards us. I let out a yelp and rushed at the zombie, bringing my crutch weapon down on his head twice until he stopped moving.

"Remind me never to sneak up on you." Yes, my brother is still cracking jokes. "Let's go." He sped quickly but quietly down the street and we were just as quiet. When I saw his red Cherokee jeep I sighed in relief. Dean tossed me the keys. "Rae, you drive, I want to be able to shoot if I need to." I opened the doors quickly and got into the driver's seat whilst Chloe slid into the back and Dean into the passenger seat.

"So… where to?" I asked as I started up the engine.

**~*~*~ I hope you liked it guys! Sorry there wasn't much Daryl in this first chapter, but he'll be all up in your grill for the next chapter, pinky swear. Also, I did some reading, so the medical stuff is mostly accurate, but definitely not 100%, so if someone has a heart attack you should still phone an ambulance! ^_^ ~*~*~**


	2. Chapter 2

**~*~*~ Hey guys, hope you're enjoying so far, review if you like :D ~*~*~**

"Well, this was a good idea. Not." I hit my head on the steering wheel. We had quickly stopped at Dean's apartment for some supplies before we started heading out of town, but it seemed everyone else had the same idea, the road was packed. The traffic was at a complete standstill. Dean had gotten out of the car and walked over to the bordering forest to "relieve himself" leaving me in the car with Chloe. She had calmed down a bit now, which I was glad to see.

"The military cordon can't be letting anyone through. Maybe they think we'll spread the infection."

"That's something I wondered. It's clearly spread by bites, which means the infection is in the blood, but it had to come from somewhere, so I'm thinking…"

"Airborne?" Chloe looked stricken by that. "Surely we would be displaying some kind of signs, maybe fever or something if we had caught it."

"You're right." I was glad to have another medical person with me to chat about these things, even if it was just the nurse. I rested my head on the frame of the door, trying to get some air since it was a hot and stuffy Georgia day.

"Hey." A rough voice said almost right next to my ear causing me to literally jump out of my seat and hit my head with some force on the window frame of the driver door. That hurt… a lot. Holding the sore spot on my head I turned to see who had given me such a scare. I saw a tall man in his late thirties, perhaps early forties, with shaved hair and dressed in standard "redneck" attire, well it looked like redneck clothes to me, okay?

"What the fuck, you can't just sneak up on people like that you know. Especially now!" I was angry, and it made me even madder when he started chuckling.

"Don' go bustin' meh balls now sugar." When he spoke I knew I was right – hillbilly.

"What do you want?" A man walked up to the car towards the shaven haired man who was currently irritating me. He was a bit shorter, definitely younger, with slightly longer brownish hair. He carried a crossbow in his arms, which were rippling with muscles. They weren't the kind of muscles you got from working out, they were the kind of muscles from hard labour.

"Shit goes on for miles." He informed the man standing at the window. He looked right over at me. "You a doctor?" He asked me. His stupid question and my throbbing head made for one irritable Raelen Gardner.

"Oh you must be that guy, what's his name, Captain Obvious?" I rolled my eyes.

"Fuck you." He sneered at me.

"No thanks, I'm in no mood for that right now." I smiled a mean smile at him. The top of my head was still throbbing, the Georgia heat was killing me, flesh-eating zombies were all over the place, and these two hicks were standing at my window for some unknown reason other than to irritate me even more than I was already. Before I could tell them off Dean came back.

"Hey Rae!" He jogged over and noticed the two guys standing at the truck and was immediately apprehensive (well I could tell he was apprehensive, but he just oozed calm coolness as usual). "Hey guys, problem here?" He looked at them, but his gaze flickered to me when he said it and I shook my head ever so slightly.

"Jus' tryna see wha's goin' on." The younger man said. "The road's jammed for a few miles."

"Well, I just found a truck trail in the woods. Just met a small town cop who seems to think it leads to a clearing, might be safer than here. The turnoff is just over there." He pointed to a space in the trees about 8 feet wide. Suddenly there was a noise louder than I could even comprehend as my ear drums painfully protested at the volume. When I opened my eyes I couldn't see my brother.

"Dean?" I stuck my head out the window and saw he was crouched down with the two hillbilly boys. Looking ahead I saw dark smoke in the distance. "Did they just drop a fucking bomb?" I was almost completely speechless, but it only lasted a second. "Dean, get in this car now! Guys, follow us into that clearing, go!" They didn't hesitate, they ran to their truck a few behind us and sped behind us, following me driving like a lunatic. Eventually through the trees about fifteen minutes later it led to a clearing at a quarry where there were a few other cars and people. Dean jumped of the car and surveyed the damage I could have possibly done to his precious truck.

"Do you know how much this truck cost me?" He asked me sternly. I got out of the car and noticed several scratches on the paintwork.

"Okay, so I won't drive it again."

"You won't be able to drive anything again when I break your legs, bitch."


	3. Chapter 3

**~*~*~ Now for my portrayal of Daryl Dixon. I hope you enjoy it :D ~*~*~**

Later when we had collected firewood and shared out our food for some of the women to cook, two of the women were called Carol and Lori (I think) and they volunteered to cook, which was a good thing because I'm the kind of person who could find a way to burn water if I was left to attend it. It was getting late so Dean was busy helping Chloe put up his two-man tent, which Chloe and I were going to sleep in, and the guy who had kind of taken on a leadership role, a cop from some backwater town in Georgia called Shane, had kindly given Dean his tiny little one man tent. Chloe was going to take it, but I could tell by her face that she was scared of being by herself, so I told Dean to take the one-man tent. I felt a bit useless, which is a feeling I don't enjoy at all when Shane approached me.

"Hey, doc, you got a minute?"

"Yeah sure, what's up?" I smiled politely.

"I was just wondering, later, or in the morning, when everyone's not so rattled, do you think you could like, give some physicals."

"Like physical exams?"

"Yeah." I could tell he didn't want me to do it just to check on everyone's general wellbeing.

"You want me to check for bites, scratches?"

"Please." He looked relieved that I'd understood so quickly and that he didn't have to explain it too far. "I just don't want anyone getting sick and getting loose with everyone else. We all need to survive this, it's the most important thing."

"That's no problem. Anything I can do until later?"

"One of the rednecks, he's setting up some kind of alarm system on the perimeter of the camp. You wanna go make sure he's not effing it up?" He handed me a small flashlight.

"Cool." I walked in the direction that Shane pointed and soon came across the younger redneck.

"What you want?" He asked roughly as he looked up from his task.

"I came to help."

"I don't need your help."

"And what is that supposed to mean? My help isn't good enough? For you?"

"See there ya go, stuck up bitch."

"I'm not stuck up."

"You some arrogant little bitch cause you a doctor, thinkin' you better than everyone else."

"Maybe not everyone else just you." I scowled at him and he turned his back, which annoyed me. I don't like people turning their backs on me, especially not redneck assholes. I waited a few seconds, and when he didn't turn back to me I stood with my arms folded, and in hindsight I probably looked like a spoiled little brat, but I didn't care at the time.

"You gonna stand like that all night or help?"

"Tell me what you're doing then."

"I'm puttin' holes in these tin cans and puttin' string through the holes and then I'm tyin' them round branches I put round the camp. Makin' some noisy tripwire." He held me some string and pointed to a few tin cans on the ground.

"Okay." I picked up a tin can and the piece of string and looked at them in confusion for a few seconds. "Uh… what's your name?"

"Daryl." He was still continuing on with what he was doing.

"Daryl, can you show me… what the hell I'm doing?"

"Can't you do nothin'? All that schoolin' and no common sense." I scowled at him as he took a tin can from my hand. "What's your name anyway? Or is it just doc?"

"Raelen."

"Weird name."

"Funny, I don't recall asking for your opinion on it." He ignored me again and pierced a hole in the tin with his knife and then yanked the string out of my hand to feed through the hole.

"Got it?" He held it up in front of my face. I ripped it back out of his hand. He was making me feel stupid. HE was making ME feel stupid, it's laughable. He was so annoying! Then suddenly he grabbed the collar of my scrubs and pulled me down onto the ground.

"Ouch!"

"Shut up." He whispered. I looked up to see him kneeling with his knife in his hand, looking ultra-alert. I tried to get up from the ground but his hand was on my upper back keeping me there. Shit, he was strong. I heard what was the source of his alarm. A light shuffling noise followed by a slight tapping of tin. The tripwire! The noise was getting closer, and louder. I tensed every muscle in my body waiting to see some walking dead corpse come at us when we saw a figure. Daryl raised his knife and made to slash at the body, which dodged him. Wait, zombies don't move that fast.

"You slash that knife at me again I'll jam it up yer ass boy." I recognised the tones of the other redneck man.

"Jesus Merle, ye damn near gave me a heart attack!" Daryl scolded when Merle came into full view.

"Good to see you got the doc down. Going to get you some of that high-class pussy?" This guy was disgusting.

"Shut the fuck up Merle." Daryl shook his head and grabbed my arm really roughly to pull me back onto my feet.

"Hey! Enough of the manhandling." I told Daryl off and then turned to Merle. "And you, don't make me wash your vile mouth out."

"I know what I'd like to wash your mouth out with sweetness." He sleazed and I rolled my eyes. "I jus' came out to do a piss, goodbye sugartits." He loped off into the darkness.

"Are all rednecks foul and angry or is it just you two?"

"Well, he is my brother. Maybe it's just us." He teased, but not in a fun way, in a totally dickish way.

"And in future, if you think a walker is coming, give me more notice than shoving me down in the dirt."

"Hey, if you're that mad about it maybe I won' try to save you again."

"I can take care of myself."

"Yeah sure you can. You're like what? 110 pounds?"

"Uh, none of your business."

"Whatever, you're walker bait."

"You'll take that back when I save your life, asshole."

"Don' bother, I can actually take care of myself. You're just a weak, defenceless little girl." Okay, he pushed my rage button. I shoved his chest with all of my might and he stumbled back against the tree. "What the fuck?"

"Just shut up Daryl. I think I've got enough going on without you being an asshole too."

"We all got shit going on, just deal with it. Or die, tha's the choice." He walked past me. "And if you push me again I migh' forget you're a girl." Then he stalked off.

"Great, the world goes to shit and I get stuck with a dumbass redneck asshole." I said aloud through gritted teeth.

"I heard that." I heard his voice from about ten feet away and then footsteps carrying him further away.

"Asshole." I muttered.

**~*~*~ He seems like a dick because that's my intention, I just love the bad boy thing, and maybe my character will too ;) ~*~*~**


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